In recent years communication systems have added many new services for consumer use. One such new service is a voice-messaging service which is provided by Voice Messaging System to a called party whenever the called party is unavailable. More particularly, this service is in widespread use to leave a voice message for a called party whenever a telephone call cannot be completed. In fact, the use of a voice messaging system may be more efficient than telephone conversations where participation of the two parties to a call is not required to transfer simple information. Voice messaging can be considered a replacement for a human attendant who would otherwise be required to transcribe the message, or for the simple analog recording device that can be connected to a called telephone. In this regard see, for example, the article "A Voice Message System" by D. Cohen in Computer Message Systems, edited by R. P. Uhlig, Proceeding of the IFIP TC-6 International Symposium On Computer Message Systems, Ottawa, Canada, 6-8 April 1981, North Holland Publishing Co., at pages 17-28; the article, "An Experimental Voice-Message System Controlled By Word Recognition" by P. Mermelstein et al. in Computer Message Systems, edited by R. P. Uhlig, Proceeding of the IFIP TC-6 International Symposium On Computer Message Systems, Ottawa, Canada, 6-8 Apr. 1981, North Holland Publishing Co., at pages 29-34; and the article "Voice Mail and Competing Services"by Dr. I. Gitman in Computer Message Systems, edited by R. P. Uhlig, Proceeding of the IFIP TC-6 International Symposium On Computer Message Systems, Washington, D.C., 5-7 Sep. 1985, North Holland Publishing Co., at pages 405-410.
Another new service is an automatic call-back service which provides automatic call-back to effect completion of a call within a predetermined zone of communication, e.g., within a company location, whenever a called party's phone is initially found busy. Automatic call-back service is provided by various systems termed, for example, a "Voicemail system" which forms part of a communication system. With such service, when a calling party makes a call and finds that the called number is busy, the calling party can activate the Voicemail system to automatically complete that call whenever the other telephone is placed on-hook without further involving the calling party. A typical procedure for initiating such automatic call-back service is for the calling party to depress a predetermined button on the telephone or to transmit a predetermined code (e.g., the code *77) using the telephone keypad once the calling party determines that the called party is busy. The predetermined code transmitted by pressing one or more buttons is received by the communication system. The communication system notifies the Voicemail system of such automatic call-back request and transmits the called and calling number for storage in predetermined memory locations of the Voicemail system. The communication system returns a predetermined tone or tone sequence to the calling party to inform the calling party that the automatic call-back of that call has been activated. The calling party then hangs up to continue with other business.
The equipment in the Voicemail and communication systems periodically interrogate the called number until it is found on-hook. Once the called number is found on-hook, the Voicemail system tries to complete the call by ringing the calling party and then the called party. Should the calling party be off-hook at that time, the communication system tries again to complete the call when both parties are found on-hook. The problem with such automatic call-back completion is that if the called and calling parties are found busy for a long period of time, the calling party may have forgotten the main purpose of the original call when the call is finally completed. It is, therefore, desirable to provide a reminder of a purpose or element of the call to the calling party at the time a call is completed.